Mind Screw/Film: Difference between revisions

* Parodied with the ending of ''[[Mystery Team]]''.{{context}}

* ''[[Sucker Punch]]'': It has an [[Imagine Spot]] (a brothel) which has one or three different [[Imagine Spot|Imagine Spots]]s within. During the imagine spot inside of the brothel, the characters participate in frenetic, over-the-top and [[Rule of Cool|awesome]] action sequences full of hidden symbolism. [[Unreliable Narrator|We're also not sure how much of what happened is the truth,]] and just who the protagonist is. And it subverts [[All Just a Dream]] so many times that you're not sure just whose dream it is. Logically, whoever's dream it was would be the protagonist, but good luck figuring that out.

** The movie was such a mind screw that the film adaptation of ''[[Two2010: ThousandThe TenYear We Make Contact|2010: The Year We Made Contact]]'' was largely devoted to ''[[Mind Screwdriver|trying to explain what the hell had happened in the last movie]].'' You may not have heard of this sequel. There's an excellent reason for that.

*** There's [[The Great Politics Mess -Up|another reason]] why you might not have heard of it...

* Unless you're a [[Beatles]] fan and have some basic knowledge of the 60's counterculture movement, ''[[Across the Universe (Filmfilm)|Across the Universe]]'' can be anywhere from "slightly confusing" to "incomprehensible acid trip on film".

* ''[[Arizona Dream]]'' by Emir Kusturica. [[Cloudcuckoolander|Insanely weird characters]]? Check. [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made Onon Drugs?|Odd dreams]]? Check. [[Mind Screw|Flying fish]]?! You bet! So, what exactly happened in the movie? Well, it sort of varies.

* ''[[Black Swan (Film)|Black Swan]]''. What's real, what's a hallucination, and what's a visual metaphor? In this movie, it's hard to tell, and increasingly it's hard to tell if there's even a difference. Did the movie even happen at all, or will Nina wake up screaming five minutes after the credits?

* The 2004 film ''[[Casshern]]'' had no explanation for the ending or for the various [[Deus Ex Machina]] moments that appeared throughout the film. For example, giant metal bolts of lightning that: Started the plot, transported the hero right to the point he needed to be with no question from anyone, ''and'' conveniently provided the final chamber with a giant hole in the wall.

* In ''[[Cemetery Man]]'', Francesco Dellamorte [[Can't Get Away With Nuthin|Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin']], {{spoiler|and all of his murders are pinned on someone else}}. This is because {{spoiler|Francesco isn't real, but is an imaginary construct of Franco. Fantasy bleeds into reality, and Franco begins to murder people in his insanity.}} Or maybe the dead are actually rising, the film isn't very specific on details.

* ''[[DeadmanDead Man (Filmfilm)|DeadmanDead Man]]'' with Johnny Depp is a very otherworldly film, during which few things happen and most of the dialogues are just plain weird. It's even pointed out in frustration by the protagonist at one point.

** In the DVD commentary, the [[Word of God|director]] pretty much owns up to the fact that even he doesn't really know what's going on and that the plot probably can't be explained without resorting to [[A Wizard Did It|divine intervention]]. This sentiment was shared by Jake Gyllenhaal, who played the title character; he has no idea what's happening in the movie either.

* The pretty much the entire point of the CRS company in the [[David Fincher]] flick ''[[The Game (Filmfilm)|The Game]]''.

* ''[[Give My Regards to Broad Street]]'' has some Mind Screwing - partly from symbolism, partly because of [[Dream Sequence|Dream Sequences]]s started and ended with very little warning.

** Also the main character who is putting the man through the mind screw is having some lingering doubt that he himself is dreaming and his mind bewingbeing screwed with.

* ''[[JacobsJacob's Ladder]]'' is a Mind Screw from start to finish.

* ''[[Last Year Atat Marienbad]]'', considered one of the most famous mind screws in French cinema. The film has no discernible plot other than apparently two people who may or may not have had a affair a year ago in Marienbad (German name of a Czech city) meet each other again at some sort of elite social gathering. Other than that, it plays out like some sort dream over loosely connected scenes. People still have no idea what exactly it was about, but the cinematography was beautiful.

* ''[[Mirror Mask]]''. My God, Mirror Mask... If the visual conception isn't enough (and this troper believes it is), then would some other troper explain what the whole point was? Or how it was the [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[Labyrinth (Film)|Labyrinth]]''?

* The 1965 science fiction horror ''[[Monster a Go -Go!]]'' attempts to pull off a mind screw at its climax, although as with everything else in the film - acting, special effects, sound recording - this fails utterly. In brief, director Bill Rebane ran out of money before he could finish the film; the footage was was later purchased by producer Herschell Gordon Lewis, who finished it as cheaply as possible, with extra scenes shot a year later and some spurious narration. The end result was a disjointed, haunting mess, in which characters we don't know talk at great length about a threat we never see. The kicker comes at the end; after sixty minutes of plotless meandering, it ''finally'' seems as if the radioactive monster has been cornered, in a sewer. The army are called in, and we watch some soldiers dressing themselves in radiation suits for five long minutes. But just as it seems that some action is about to take place, ''a cosmic switch is pulled''. {{spoiler|''There was no monster''. "There was no trail. There was no giant, no monster, no thing called "Douglas" to be followed."}}

** ''Lost Highway'' where on the one hand characters transform into each other. On the other hand is the first scene repeated later from a different view: Fred, who answered the entryphone in the first version, rings the bell in the second one himself. So instead of an expected [[Once More, Withwith Clarity]] it turns out to further support the Mind Screw.

** Mr. Lynch is so well known for his [[Mind Screw|Mind Screws]]s, that he had to title his one non-maddening movie ''The Straight Story''. And it's still kind of weird.

** Speaking of Cronenberg films, ''[[eXistenZ]]'' is Philip K Dick-like in the mind screw department. It features a VR game within a VR game within a VR game within a VR game, the characters openly question whether they're still in the game at every level (and for bonus points, compare real-life to VR), switch sides multiple times, and reference things that happened at other levels.

* The very end of ''[[Reazione a Catena]]'', with {{spoiler|the main killers being shot to death with a shotgun by their '''8-year-old''' son, and his sister commenting, ''"Gee, they're good at playing dead, aren't they?''"}}.

* The scene in ''[[Spaceballs (Film)|Spaceballs]]'' where Dark Helmet watches himself on a VHS tape. He got so confused that he cannot grasp the concept of "when".

* The ''[[Star Wars Holiday Special]]'' has quite some moments of mind screw, largely thanks to the fact there's absolutely no subtitles for non-human creatures' languages (such as the wookies). For instance, we'll perhaps never know what the hell where the tiny circus-performers like things the little wookie was watching, let alone the white swimming things that appeared in the machine that grandpa wookie was watching.

* ''[[The Uninvited (2009 film)|The Uninvited]]'' has a wonderful Mind Screw at the end of the film.{{context}}

* 1968's "''[[The Magus"]]'' (from the book of the same name by John Fowles, more highly recommended, than the movie) with Anthony Quinn as the Master Mind-screw guy, screwing with a young guy on a Greek island; ... very hard to know what is up, it's a good one.

* The ending of ''[[Time Bandits (Film)|Time Bandits]]'' as well as just about every other [[Terry Gilliam (Creator)|Terry Gilliam]] film ever made.

*** Completely...ItsIt's aan okOK although odd movie until the final battle and everything after. Then we were all WTF just happened?

**** What do you mean? The ending of ''[[Time Bandits (Film)|Time Bandits]]'' couldn't be simpler: [[God]] finally catches up with the bandits right as the [[Satan|Evil Genius]] is about to kill them and escape from his prison within the age of legends. God destroys the Evil Genius, rehires the bandits, telling them it's time to get back to work repairing all the holes in time, and sends the boy back to his home. A charred fragment of the Evil Genius' corpse comes through the time-hole with him, however, and his parents are killed when they touch the fragment, which also causes their house to catch on fire. One of the firemen who comes to put out the fire is the physically identical reincarnation of Agamemnon. [[Sarcasm Mode|What part of any of this is the least bit mysterious?]]

** ''[[Brazil (Filmfilm)|Brazil]]'' is a prime example of this. It's about a man living in a corrupt bureaucratic government who uses his dreams as an escape. It gets difficult to separate what's real and what's not, especially at the end when he's going insane {{spoiler|as his best friend tortures him.}} [[Executive Meddling|In the original ending, at least]].

* [[Jim Henson]] (yes, THAT''that'' Jim Henson) made a overly symbolic (and Oscar-nominated) short film called ''Time Piece''. Scenes include a caveman in an office, Jim Henson's head on a serving tray, and the only dialogue in the movie is Jim himself saying "help" about 3 or 4 times.

* ''[[Un Chien Andalou]]''. Just try to read the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_Chien_Andalou:Un Chien Andalou#Synopsis |Other Wiki's synopsis]]. [[Word of God]] says that was entirely deliberate. Quoting [[Luis Bunuel]] on the rules he and Dali[[Salvador Dalí]] set for them selves in writing the script: "no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." and "Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything. The only method of investigation of the symbols would be, perhaps, psychoanalysis."

* ''[[Videodrome]]''{{context}}

* ''Waking Life''{{context}}

* Jean-Luc Godard's film ''Weekend''.{{context}}

* ''[[What the Bleep Do We Know]]'' is a ''major, major'' offender of this one. If you can make some sense out of the cryptic, convoluted [[Techno Babble]] about Quantum Mechanics, Religion, Life, the Universe and Everything, you'll see how this movie easily beats ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]'' in terms of head-trippiness, even though even [[The Other Wiki]] agrees it's all just quantum mysticism mixed with the ideas of some new age school. [http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/bleep.html According to Intuitor.com], it also completely messed up Quantum Physics, horrible research, biases and scientific inaccuracies destroyed any hope of correct science.

* ''[[Westworld]]'' is an odd case in that it ''almost'' makes sense, and keeps setting itself up as if for [[The Reveal]]. By the end, we've still got a [[Amusement Park of Doom|decadent amusement park]] where a bunch of [[Ridiculously -Human Robots]] [[Robot War|started killing people for no apparent reason]]. Add in gallons of [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]], and you've got yourself a headache.

* ''The Blades of Glory'' ending.{{context}}

* ''[[The Men Who Stare Atat Goats]]'' is full of this, but is played for laughs. The final scene in particular stands out.

* "''[[The Valley, Obscured by Clouds"]]'' - French hippies on a quest (with Pink Floyd soundtrack)

* ''[[Old BoyOldboy]]''{{context}}

* "Northfork".{{context}}

* The Swedish film ''Persona'' features an actress who goes mute, except maybe she really isn't but wants to get away from her life. Her nurse wants to become the actress because she hates herself, and maybe she did. Or didn't. The actress also has a son that is involved...somehow. The opening scenes feature dead bodies, a sheep being stabbed with a knife, and [[Writer Revolt|an erect penis]]. What does all this have to do with the rest of the film? [[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene|No idea]], as it's even more out of place than the rest of the movie. Anyone who says they get what's going on [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|is lying]].

* ''[[Performance]]''. When the sudden [[Music Video]] ''follows perfectly''...

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtJW1WRfRg4 "The Color of Pomegranates"], a Soviet-Armenian film [[Very Loosely Based Onon a True Story|loosely based]] on the life of 18th century Armenian poet Sayat-Nova. But instead of being a straight biography, it's an artistic film comprised mostly just a bunch of bizarre scenes that don't make much sense to anyone not familiar with Sayat-Nova's poems.

* ''The Attic Expeditions''{{context}}

* ''[[Cry Wolf (Film)|Cry Wolf]]'', best summed up with this exchange.

{{quote| "I'm confused."<br />

* ''[[The Monkees (Musicband)|The Monkees]]'' movie ''[[Head (Film)|Head]]''. A [[Deconstruction]] of the TV Show, plus an anti-establishment acid trip.

* No mention of this: [[Rocky Horror Picture Show|A man and his fiance-that he takes the time to remind everyone of- end up entering a castle inhabited by generic horror movie servants who work for a transvestite Tim Curry who somehow creates a frankensteinFrankenstein monster only for a zombified Meat Loaf to ride a motorcycle out of a giant freezer to sing a song while dry humping his girlfriend only for Tim Curry to slaughter him and then apparently marry the frankensteinFrankenstein only for a narrator with no F***ing neck to introduce Tim Curry having sex with the asshole and the slut followed by the musical sex scene of the slut seducing the frankensteinFrankenstein when the paraplegic, naziNazi koolKool-aidAid man crashes through the wall and announces that meat loaf is his nephew and things about how much of a disappointment Meat Loaf was and this introduces musical attempted rape followed by a musical orgy in a pool and-wouldn't you know it- a musical dance where the servants reveal that they are aliens and kill transvestite Tim Curry, Meat Loaf's girlfriend, and frankensteinFrankenstein and then fly the castle off into space.]] I am obviously talking about Thelma and Louise.

* ''[[The Science of Sleep (Film)|The Science of Sleep]]'': Due to the main character's constant and confusing dreaming it's hard to keep up with what is a dream and what isn't. And did that time machine actually work?

* ''What Is It?'' [[Crispin Glover]]'s...creation. There's a reason [[Brows Held High|Oancitizen]] [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|went crazy]] after seeing it.

{{quote| "Bizarre alien horror movie about an abductee who returns three years later in alien form in order to abduct his son. He goes through several transformations, one of them by impregnating a woman through her mouth and gorily emerging a short while later as a full grown male. He transforms his son by sucking on his shoulder, who then joins him in bizarre activities like melting phones, creating a killer midget clown and stuffing the babysitter into a cocoon so that she can lay eggs. No, this movie does not make any sense."}}

* ''[[Monty PythonsPython's theThe Meaning of Life]]''. Figuring out the meaning of life is ''easy'' compared with figuring out the meaning of this movie.

* ''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]'': while the movie in general makes sense (or at least as much sense as one can expect from the Looney Tunes), the part where Shaggy complains about his voicing is a very subtle mind screw. Think about it. How can a real person be voice-acted.

* My God, ''[[Felix the Cat: The Movie]]''. Just...just watch it. Reptilian creatures, a magic bag, a half-robot evil overlord, a sentient tear, a dimensional transporter, mice-lizard hybrids, [[Yellow Submarine]]-like sea creatures, a [[Circus of Fear]], a forest made of giant hair follicles with head-hunting creatures that are always losing their own heads, evil cubes and cylinders, and a book of ultimate power that defeats the bad guy by being thrown at him. And to top it all off, there's also a German version.

[[Category:Mind Screw{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]